The Rise and Fall of Mediterranean Civilizations July 5-10, 2015

The ancient world has always been a useful mirror for subsequent civilizations. Still today, we look to the ancients not only as progenitors of some of the most characteristic institutions of Western culture, but also as forebears who wrestled with issues that continue to trouble modern societies. The ancients bequeathed us such important ideas as democracy and the rule of law and have shaped our sense of art, poetry, and history ever since. It goes without saying that two of the most important religious traditions of the Western world-Christianity and Judaism-have their roots in ancient times. But the ancient world also provides perspective on some of the more troubling features of modern times-for example, imperialism and slavery. Apart from its usefulness, generations have found the study of the ancient world delightful and absorbing in its own right.

In this course, we have decided to be ambitious and to cast our nets very wide by offering an overview of the ancient world from the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600 BCE) to the end of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD). To give focus to our study, we have selected several of the most momentous and influential eras to explore during this five-day course. We begin with pre-historic Greece and its place within a surprisingly cosmopolitan international culture in the Bronze Age. We turn next to the Greek Renaissance of the 8th century BCE, a time of accelerating developments and some astounding cultural achievements. No treatment of the ancient world can overlook the truly great 5th century BCE, where we will spend a day exploring the brilliant accomplishments of the ancient city of Athens in art, poetry, and politics during that era. We next turn to the astonishing phenomenon known as Rome and the Roman Empire. We will look at the story of Rome's rise to a dominating position in the Mediterranean world and the subsequent decline of the Roman Empire in the West.

Among those serving as faculty are David Price-Williams, an internationally recognized expert on the Mediterranean world and the Near East, and Kevin Crotty, the J. Donald Childress Professor of Foreign Languages at Washington and Lee, where he also serves as chair of the Classics Department. This program also anticipates a W&L Traveller cruise on the Mediterranean from Athens to Istanbul in late August.